


Proposal

by Sidonie



Series: The King's Squire [1]
Category: Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-17
Updated: 2011-06-17
Packaged: 2017-10-20 12:04:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/212595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sidonie/pseuds/Sidonie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Zahir receives an unexpected offer and wants to know why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Proposal

**Author's Note:**

> This is the beginning of my series "The King's Squire," and so I shall attempt to explain how this works. This is a _huge_ series, composed of many, many ficlets and several multi-chapter stories. It tracks Zahir's development in the time of his squiredom under King Jonathan. This does not mean, however, that they are all completely chronological, stylistically uniform, or even completely compatible with each other. They were all written as individual ficlets for Goldenlake's SMACKDOWN 2011 competition, and as such every story and chapter should be able to stand alone. Nevertheless, I wrote so much that they formed a mostly coherent arc and all draw from and form my head!canon, so I'm posting them as a series so as to establish some sort of order in the chaos. They can be read out of order, separately, or any way you want. They range from fluff to angst, from gen to slash, from dialogue-based to entirely description. As the pairing I was writing for was Jon/Zahir, many feature them, but the majority are gen. Most are quite short.
> 
> This is the first one I wrote, where it all begins. Enjoy.

“I want you to be my squire.”

Zahir blinked, momentarily stunned. “I'm sorry, your Majesty?”

“I said I want you to be my squire.”

“With all due respect, sir, why?”

King Jonathan sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. “One of the central frustrations of being a king is that, no matter how absolute your power theoretically is, in reality it is absurdly difficult to do anything. You are mostly divorced from your people, hampered by argumentative nobility, strictly bound by the foreign treaties you sign . . . honestly, I'm sick and tired of it. I want to do something real and tangible.” He stared at the Bazhir youth, his considering gaze making Zahir distinctly uncomfortable. “I want to make you a knight.

“If I took my son, as the conservatives and traditionalists want me to, I would only be repeating the lessons and morals I have already worked hard to instill in him for fourteen years. It would be a pointless exercise. But you intrigue me. I know you were part of the harassment of Keladry of Mindelan. You are yourself conservative, yet the conservatives dislike you because you are Bazhir. You are competent, but not yet outstanding. Your teachers tell me you are bright, but not outspoken. I think you are capable of either greatness or obscurity, and maybe even real darkness.

“But perhaps most importantly, you are Bazhir and I am the Voice. That is the only part of my kingship where I have true connections to and agency with those I rule, and you understand it. I need that. I will ask one more time. Zahir ibn Alhaz, will you be my squire?” He reached out.

The boy regarded the hand coolly for a moment before taking it. “I will,” he replied.

“Good. We'll begin supplying you tomorrow.”


End file.
